ATA Joins Suit Challenging California Low Carbon Fuel Standard

The American Trucking Associations (ATA) joined petroleum refiners and other end-users in a legal challenge to California’s recently enacted low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS) today. The regulation adopted by the California Air Resources Board requires annual reductions in the carbon intensity of gasoline and diesel over the next ten years. The LCFS regulation falls directly upon fuel providers (refiners, importers and blenders of fuel), but will impact end-users because of associated fuel price increases.

The legal challenge is largely based on the Commerce Clause with assertions that the “shuffling” of low-carbon fuel to California and away from other states will significantly burden fuel providers and consumers without any net change in fuel’s carbon-intensity on a global scale, resulting in no reduction — and a likely increase — in greenhouse gas emissions.

“The LCFS would essentially ban imports to California of fuels derived from unconventional sources such as oil sands from Canada, oil shale from the Western U.S., or domestic coal supplies that can be converted into transportation fuels,” said ATA Vice President Rich Moskowitz. “Discouraging these fuels will simply increase costs while failing to prevent their export to and consumption by other nations.”

The Complaint, filed in United States District Court in California, also challenged the regulatory scheme as discriminating in favor of California-produced fuels by assigning them lower carbon-intensity ratings because of shorter transportation distances to users. Others joining the suit include the Center for North American Energy Security, Consumer Energy Alliance and National Petrochemical and Refiners Association.

Related Links

Petroleum Refining in the U.S. – IBISWorld industry report

Oil Drilling & Gas Extraction in the U.S. – IBISWorld industry report

Teamsters & United Auto Workers Call Toyota “A Danger to America”

Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa and United Auto Workers (UAW) Vice President Bob King joined representatives from labor, environmental and consumer groups outside the Embassy of Japan in Washington today to call on the Japanese government to hold Toyota accountable for waging an attack on thousands of good-paying jobs in the United States.

In addition to endangering 5,000 middle class jobs in the carhaul industry, Toyota is also planning to close its New United Motors Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) assembly plant in Fremont, CA, which will mean a loss of up to 50,000 jobs at NUMMI and suppliers and other supporting businesses. Toyota began production in the U.S. in 1984 through NUMMI, its joint venture with General Motors at Fremont, according to industry research firm IBISWorld.

The delegation delivered a letter from UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles and Hoffa to Prime Minister of Japan Yukio Hatoyama following the speaking program. In the letter, the leaders of UAW and the Teamsters expressed concern that Toyota’s plan to abandon workers and communities will negatively affect America’s perception of Japan, and calls on the Japanese government to meet with them and with Toyota management.

King, who was representing UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and Settles, told the crowd that California led the nation in “Cash for Clunkers” sales in 2009, and that Toyota sold more cars under this program than any other auto maker.

“It’s outrageous that the number one-selling car in Cash for Clunkers was the Corolla, the car that is manufactured in the NUMMI plant. After receiving more money in this bailout program than any other company, Toyota is turning its back on American workers and American taxpayers by closing the plant in the state where they sell the most cars in the U.S., shipping these jobs to Japan, and then importing the cars back to the United States for sale,” said King.

“Toyota management is seeking to move work from auto transport companies that have delivered their new cars and trucks for decades,” Hoffa said. “The loss of this work could lead to the destruction of the largest auto transport companies in the country and the loss of thousands of good, middle class jobs. Toyota promised to support American communities; they’re instead threatening the very types of good jobs that our communities need in this time of economic crisis.”

“Toyota’s plant closure plan in California has betrayed American workers and exhibited a disdain for our federal programs like cash for clunkers that directly and handsomely benefited Toyota,” said Dr. Brent Blackwelder, President Emeritus of Friends of the Earth US. “Toyota’s decision to shift production to Japan will dramatically increase shipping miles to California for its new vehicles and is inconsistent with a worldwide effort to reduce carbon footprints.”

Toyota is likewise losing the trust of the American public by abandoning its commitment to safety and being less than forthright about some of its problematic vehicles, said auto safety advocate Sean Kane, president and founder of Safety Research & Strategies.

“The now well-publicized sudden acceleration problem with some Toyota and Lexus vehicles has actually been festering for a number of years, but Toyota neglected the issue,” said Kane. “Now it’s trying to repair its image with a series of recalls that few believe will actually repair the many vehicles affected. It’s pretty clear that there are a multitude of defects contributing to these unintended accelerating incidents that, unfortunately, have resulted in deaths and injuries.”

“The Toyota Fremont, CA NUMMI plant is where the popular Toyota Corolla and Tacoma pickup truck are made, and it has among the best productivity and quality of any assembly plant in the U.S.,” King said. “Abandoning this facility and endangering tens of thousands of jobs is a betrayal of Toyota’s promise to support communities, and a betrayal of its workers, middle class American jobs and our economic recovery.”

Related links

Car & Automobile Manufacturing in the U.S. - IBISWorld Industry Report 

State of Union Proposals Cost Taxpayers $70 Billion

Even as he encouraged reforms like a freeze on a small portion of the federal budget and a robust disclosure process for Congressional earmarks, President Obama still called for at least $70.46 billion in new federal spending burdens on taxpayers, according to a line-by-line analysis of his first State of the Union speech by the non-partisan National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF).

Among the findings of NTUF’s analysis:

•President Obama outlined items whose enactment would increase federal spending by a net of $70.46 billion per year. Since 1999, when NTUF began tracking Presidential addresses, the lowest recorded total was President Bush’s address in 2006, coming in under $1 billion in new spending; the highest was President Clinton’s 1999 speech, which proposed $305 billion in new outlays. Obama’s speech last night amounted to $36 billion less than the $106 billion that George W. Bush offered in his first State of the Union speech in 2002.

•Obama outlined 21 proposals with a fiscal impact last night, eight of which would boost spending, three of which would cut them, and 10 of which had costs or savings that could not be pinpointed. The single largest item Obama mentioned was a call to pass cap-and-trade national energy tax legislation, with an outlay cost of $51.5 billion (not including revenue increases or price hikes in energy bills). Other large initiatives included immigration reform ($9.8 billion) and subsidies for retirement savings among low-income Americans. Major undertakings with unquantifiable costs included a student loan forgiveness program and a new round of mortgage refinancing subsidies.

“This analysis doesn’t include huge potential burdens from big-government health care legislation, a new ’stimulus’ plan, or greater obligations to bailed out entities like auto companies and banks. While it’s clear we face enormous deficits as far as the eye can see, taxpayers seeking specifics on the President’s future direction of federal expenditures likely won’t find a compass in last night’s speech,” Brady concluded.